Adventure Series: Party of Five!
by ShooterH aka Shoe
Summary: Eggman's in New York with Shadow Heartless as his minions! Who knew? (Whee! Error mode is discovered in this Adventure fic.)


Party of Five

Chapter One

The doorbell rang.  I sprang up from my new stereo and ran out of my room and down the hallway.  Unable to stop my momentum, I slammed into the solid wooden front door, undoubtedly frightening whoever it was on the other side.  I regained my balance, ran my fingers through my hair, and opened the door.  It was Will and Nick.

Nick pointed at me with a completely serious expression.  "What'd you _do_?"

"Oh...I, uh, ran into the door."

"Obviously."

"Yeah.  Come in."  I stepped aside and shut the front door when they were in.

"So..." Will began.  "Are we the first ones here?"

"Uh huh," I answered.  "There are snacks and stuff in the kitchen."

Nick gasped, and then shot like a bullet down the hallway.  "FOOD!...Hey, where's the salsa?"

"In the fridge," I answered.  Nick ran and slid on the terrazzo floor, stylishly yanking open the refrigerator door at the same time.  He stuck in his whole upper half and reemerged with a jar of salsa, holding it up like a trophy.  Will cracked up laughing.

The doorbell rang again.  Will and I scrambled out of the kitchen, leaving Nick to stuff his face with chips and dip.  It was Justin at the front door.  Will calmly let him in.  "Hey, Hillary, Will," said Justin.

"How goes it?" asked Will, in his trademark manner.

Justin raised an eyebrow.  "It goes to the kitchen to git sum munchies."

"Ah.  Of course."

I had to laugh.  Will and Justin had totally different senses of humor, yet here they were, joking, if not rather awkwardly.  Hey, it was funny.

"HEY!" Nick yelled from the kitchen.  "I found cake!"

"Noooo!"  I took off back down the hallway to go rescue dessert.  Justin and Will had no choice but to follow.

"Pokémon cake, huh?"  Nick was eyeing the various characters decorating it.  "That's awesome.  I want the totodile."

"No, man, the totodile's mine," countered Justin.

"Then I get Ash's head," said Will.

Suddenly, a loud thump came from the double doors leading outside from the adjacent dining area.  Nick froze with a salsa-smothered chip halfway to his mouth.  I sidestepped past Justin and saw Dugan outside, rubbing his forehead.  There was a huge smudge on the door glass.  Dugan came in on his own.  "Hey, y'all," he said, with the utmost confidence.

"Oh, it's just you."  Nick resumed eating.

"Who else is coming?" asked Dugan.

"Absolutely no one at all," I answered.  The small get-together wasn't really for much of anything; I just felt like having some friends over.  Quite fun.

Dugan stole the bowl of chips away from Nick.  "So, we're just gonna sit around here, waiting for something to happen?"

"Yah..."  Will snatched the chips from Dugan.  "But I guess we could go listen to music or something if you're bored."

Justin grabbed the bowl next.  "I vote for standing around and eating."

Nick was hugging himself in the corner of the room, muttering about his lost chips.  I took them away from Justin and set them back down on the counter.  Nick's face lit up and he discreetly took possession of the bowl of chips again.

"I got a new stereo," I said out of the blue.

"That was _totally_ off the point," said Nick.  Dugan backed out of the kitchen and jerked his head slightly, motioning for me to follow.  I did.  He led me back to my room and sat on the bed.

"What, you want to see the stereo?" I asked.

"No.  I mean, yeah, but not right now."

"When – Oh, wait, is this about...certain stuff?"  I leaned out into the hallway to check if anyone was coming.  It was all clear, so I ducked back inside and shut the door.  Dugan nodded sheepishly.

"I was chatting on the Internet with Eggman earlier, and I pissed him off about New York's security."

"What!?"  I cracked up laughing.  "That's ridiculous!  Why were you even on that subject?"

"We were discussing that giant Windows XP computer we busted out in the jungle.  Remember that?  That was cool.  Anyway, he's still angry about it."

"What does that have to do with New York's security?"

"I have no idea."  Dugan looked at the ceiling.  "You know how conversations just..._evolve_."  He looked back at me.  "Eggman was threatening to kill both of us."

"He's done that countless times before."

"I know, but the way he typed it sounded _really_ serious.  He was all like, 'Don't even think of taking this lightly,' and 'This is a very real threat,' and 'Your families will never find your bodies,' and stuff.  I'm kinda scared, if you ask me."

"That still sounds incredibly dumb, in my opinion, but you could be right."  I started pacing back and forth.  "What, so should we go kick his ass again?  Where is he?"

"He didn't say, but we can find him on the PDNA."  Dugan took the comma-shaped device out of his dark green backpack and flipped it on, projecting a small holographic screen into the air.  He navigated around the program for a minute or so.

"Found him...and..."  Dugan frowned.  "Oh, jeez, he's in New York."

"Of course.  But you still haven't told me why the security there is bugging him."

"Oh."  Dugan scratched his head.  "I told him about our little expedition in the big apple on 9/11, and then he started boasting about how he could use the aftereffects to his advantage."

"To do _what_?"

"Oh, take over, robotisize everyone, the usual."

"Robotnik's an idiot."

"Tell me something I _don't_ know, please."  Dugan sighed.  "I definitely think we should go check things out."

"With everyone here?"

"It'll only take a minute to go scope out New York in the pacs.  We'll be back before they even notice we're gone."

"You have _got_ to be kidding."

"Nope.  We go back in time to yesterday so 'right now' will be frozen."

"Ah."  I stretched.  "Let's do this.  To New York we go."

Dugan initiated a DNA portal that would simultaneously transport us to yesterday's New York _and_ change us to furry format.  Very cool.  And convenient.  I straightened my shirt and prepared to enter the growing blue and black portal.  Dugan stood up and went over to the closed door to check for intruders again.  He leaned over to listen for anyone, but the door slammed open on its own, hitting him in the forehead and knocking him backwards.  Justin was on the other side.

"What are y'all _doing_ in here – Oh my _God_, what _is_ that thing!?"  Justin froze for a second, not knowing whether to come in the room or run away.  Will appeared beside him and slipped through the doorway to see.

"Whoa."

Nick came through last of all, still brandishing the bowl of chips.  He spotted the still-opening portal and gasped.  "Why, I'm absolutely _speechless_!  I seem to be at a loss for words due to this strange phenomenon that has rendered me totally – "

Justin clamped his hand bodyguard-style on Nick's shoulder.  "I _thought_ you were speechless."

Both Dugan and I had been frozen where we stood the whole time.  Then, simultaneously, we broke from our trance and suddenly scrambled for the portal at the exact same moment.  I had no idea if we made it in alone or not.

Chapter Two

Now a purple hedgehog furry, I hit the dirty, smelly cement facedown.  Not pleasant.  I got up on my hands and knees to survey where I was.

I was apparently in a small, dank alley, lined with trashcans, dumpsters, and fire escape ladders to the floors above.  There were puddles of opaque water every few feet.  Ahead, I could see the sidewalk, the street, and the buildings beyond, crowded with pedestrians, cars, innumerable taxis, and the occasional limousine.  And the smell?  It smelled ungodly in that alley.  It had probably once been a popular hangout for homeless dudes or something, because I specifically recognized the odor of beer, vomit, pee, and crap.  Again, not pleasant.

I turned around and saw Dugan standing up.  And Will.  And Nick.  And Justin.  As furries.  All of them.

Will got up and looked in bewilderment at his gloved hands, then down at his black combat boots.  He ran his hands through his limp spikes and bangs covering his forehead.  Will was now a dark green-eyed dark gray echidna, with green accents here and there, and a green stripe running down his front.

Justin was turning wildly around in circles, checking himself out from all angles.  He was a sky-blue fox with sparse bangs sticking straight out, and wearing bright green shoes with a black stripe running across.  His sharp lime green eyes seemed to stand out from the surrounding darkness.

Nick was a black fox with white points, brown eyes, and _masses_ of hair.  He was just standing there, in plain black tennis shoes, looking at us all through his glasses.  "Oh.  My.  God."  Nick dropped to his knees and stared at the sky.  "I'm a _thing_!"

Dugan was frantically beeping around on the PDNA, trying to figure out how the three of them had been reformatted into furries that hadn't even been created yet.  He gave up, walked over to the brick wall, and banged his head on it repeatedly.

"Quite confusing, I must say," Will stated, his chin in his hand, deep in thought.

"Don't y'all get it?"  Justin stepped forward.  "We're Sonic furries.  I don't get _how_, but that's definitely what we are.  Man, haven't y'all ever played Sega?"

Both Will and Nick got sheepish.  "No..."

I adjusted my glasses.  "Dugan, locate Robotnik, please."

"I already did...That might be why I'm abusing myself right now..."  He continued hitting his head on the wall.

"What, is he...WHAT!?"  Justin suddenly sat down.  Very hard.  "You're telling me that the Sonic universe is _real_!?"

"Simply amazing, to put it blatantly," Will said, not showing any emotion.  Then he exploded.  "This is absolutely _incredible_!  To think that any fictional universe could become real is just astounding!  With this knowledge and power, we could become superheroes or teen idols or something!  People would _worship_ us!  And – "

"Shut up, would you?"  Nick kicked at the ground.  "I'm not that keen on being worshipped."

"...Teen idols...?"  Justin stood there flat-footed with the hint of a crazed smile on his face.  He had always wanted to be some sort of famous comedian, and this whole 'furry' thing could work to his advantage if he played his cards right.

I caught Dugan's attention.  "Sooo...Where's Eggman, Double-D?"

Dugan looked straight up and pointed.  Way up high in the sky, the clouds seemed to be pushed aside by some unseen force.  It was the Egg Carrier, no doubt, but with some kind of invisibility cloak that Dugan and I had never seen before.  Dugan cleared his throat.  "There's absolutely no way to get up that high, even if we went and climbed the Empire State Building or something."

"We can climb buildings...?"  Nick's glasses fell down his nose from bewilderment.  Startled, he pushed them back up.

Justin waved his hand.  "Dude, furries can do almost anything.  Fall in molten lava, breathe in outer space, you name it.  We're indestructible."

Both Dugan and I glared at Justin.  He stepped back.  "Okay, so I might be wrong there...Just how long has this been going on, y'all?"

I put my head in my hands.  "About seven months now..."

"And you never _told_ me?"  Will appeared hurt.

"You didn't tell me, either!" added Nick.

I broke down.  "I'm _sorry_!  This isn't something that I can just freely chat about, and what's more, you probably wouldn't have believed me anyway!"

"Not if you had provided proof," stated Will.

"_Anyway_, before we start going at each other's throats, I think we should deal with whatever monstrosity is floating up there."  Nick pointed a finger at the sky.

Dugan sighed.  "First of all, y'all need names.  I'm Flame, and Hillary's Shooter, but Shoe is fine.  Make a decision.  Quickly."

Will went into processing mode.  He put both hands to his head and looked down.  After a second or so, he sprang up again.  "Vlad."

"The Impaler?" asked Justin.

"More or less."

Nick got all bouncy and held his hand up like a kid in second grade.  "Roscoe!"

"And that leaves me to be..."  Justin stood there.  "Jay."

"Alright.  Onward."  I pointed up.  "Flame, get the pacs out, would ya?  The two of us'll go up there to check it out, and y'all three stay here to provide ground cover in case Robotnik goes postal or something."

"But I wanna meet him!" Justin whined.

"Don't worry, dude, you will," I said.  "He's not what you think; trust me."

Dugan held the PDNA out like a remote control, hit a button, and made two small and sleek hovercrafts appear out of thin air; one purple, one red.  They resembled pills that had been flattened on the bottom.  There were three tail fins at the back of the pacs; one on each side, and one on the top.  The entire top half of the pacs were one-way glass where the cockpit was.

The glass disintegrated to allow entry.  Dugan held a hand up.  "Hang on.  I think that only Shoe or I should go, plus one of you newbies.  That way, if something happens down here, y'all won't be totally clueless."

"Sounds fair," I said.  "So, who's going?"

"You are," said Dugan.

I rolled my eyes.  "Who's gonna come with me?"

Justin and Will's eyes locked and they both bristled.

"Great!  Then it's settled!"  Nick shoved the two of them to either side as he walked forward.  "I'm going.  If you two are gonna fight over it, then – "

"Wait a second!"  Justin grabbed Nick's bushy tail and pulled.  "Get back here!"

"_Eeeep!_"  Nick was dragged backwards.

"Why should _you_ go?" asked Justin.  Nick didn't have an answer.  He jerked free and skittered away behind Will.

"Unh."  Dugan sighed.  "Maybe it _should_ just be Shoe and me..."

"Nuh-uh!" Will quickly interjected.  "If it makes any of you happier, I'll volunteer _not_ to go.  Hah.  Look at how generous I am."  He crossed his arms and got smug.

"Listen!"  Dugan erupted.  "Y'all followed us into the portal.  That's all right.  But if you wanna _stay_, then I suggest you quit fighting and make a decision."

"But we can't make a decision at all without squabbling, apparently," said Nick, peeping out from behind Will.

"Then draw straws or something."  Dugan crossed his arms and leaned against the red pac.

"Ah.  Here we go."  Nick found three pebbles on the ground.  One was sparkly, and the other two were dull.  He shook them up in his hands.  "Pick your pebble.  The sparkly one wins."

Justin and Will each grabbed a pebble without looking.  All three of them opened their hands at the same moment.  Nick won.

"What – No!  Uh-uh!  You cheated!"  Justin pointed in Nick's surprised face.

"Jay, you're such a sore loser," I said casually.  Dugan pointed the PDNA at the red pac and turned it black.  Nick's eyes lit up and he bounded over.

"Wow!  For me?"  He bent down and sort of hugged the hovercraft.  "You color-coded it just for _me_?  I've never felt so..."  He sniffed.  "..._loved_!"

Will and Justin were fuming silently.  I sighed and vaulted into my own purple pac.  Nick slid into his.  I made the cockpit glass reappear, and then brought up Nick's image on the visual radio directly to my right.  He looked around wildly, and then spotted me on his own screen.  He gripped the double joystick and sighed violently.  "Alright.  How do I get off the ground?"

"You're smart.  Figure it out.  These things are virtually foolproof."  I sat and listened to Nick's silence for a moment or so.

He suddenly banged his head on the back of his seat.  "Gaw!  I don't even know where to begin – Oh, hello, what's this button do?"  Nick punched a button on the dashboard and made his cockpit glass reappear.  "Whoo!"

"Now you're getting somewhere."  I stepped on one of the foot pedals and made my pac slowly rise up.  "Okay.  Roscoe, or whatever, lightly press the right foot pedal."

"What, this one?"

"_Lightly_."

He stomped on it and shot straight up about twenty feet.  He opened the glass and looked down at the rest of us.  "Lemme guess...The left pedal makes it go down, right?"

"Yah.  Don't – "

"WAAAH!"  Nick floored it and dropped.  Then, right before he would have smashed into the asphalt, he let go and stomped the right pedal, bringing the descent to an abrupt halt.  "Hah.  Scared ya there, huh?"

"Don't _do_ that!" I said.  "Let's hurry."  The two of us rose straight up, picking up speed as we went.  The Egg Carrier was _way_ overhead, much taller than any of the skyscrapers in all of Manhattan.  It would take a couple of minutes to get up there.

Chapter Three

All of a sudden, my visual radio flashed and went all static-y.  "Aw, man..."  I gave it a whack with my fist, but to no avail.  Then Dr. Robotnik himself appeared on it.

"What are you _doing_?  How did you even know I was up here?" he barked.

I cracked up laughing.  "You're such an idiot!  Why are you so power-hungry?"

"I've got a lot of free time and intellect.  And it's _fun_ having people bow to your every whim!  You should try it sometime, hedgehog."

I started giggling uncontrollably.  I would never get used to speaking with the guy.  It was just so ridiculous hearing his dialect in real life, especially with him calling me "hedgehog" and whatnot.

"Sonic Team needs new writers..."

"What?" Eggman snapped.

"Nothing, sorry."

The screen went snowy again, and then Nick flickered back onscreen.  "Yo, Shoe, where'd you _go_?"

"Huh?  Eggman just chewed me out.  Let's hurry and bust up his plans before anything happens – "

TSEWWW!!!  A blinding white laser shot downward and hit Nick's pac.  It blew apart, sending Nick careening down, unconscious.  Before I could react, another laser hit my pac and made it explode in all directions.  I blasted upwards, hung there for a moment, and then plummeted.

"Oh, craaaaap!"  I twisted around and spotted Nick below me, falling headfirst.  Very bad.  I straightened out and flattened my ears, trying to become as streamlined as possible to catch up.  Within three seconds, Nick's ankle was within reach.  I grabbed it and pulled, getting his head upwards.

Nick started to slowly babble, as if he were half-asleep.  "Hey...Who's breakin' the wind?...Sandslash, Hitmonlee, Psyduck, Arcanine...Pony rides, two bucks..."

I lightly slapped him on the face.  He opened his eyes and blinked.  Then he flipped.

"GAAAH!  What's going on – What the _hell_ just happened!?"

"You started reciting the Pokérap!"

"I did?"

Then Nick looked down.  He screamed like a girl and latched onto my arm.  "Sh*t man, we're gonna DIE!"

I saw the ground far below, and could barely make out Dugan, Will, and Justin looking up in shocked horror.  Damn!  The adventure had only just begun, and here Nick and I were going to smash into the ground, and our families would never know where we went...I shuddered at the thought, and suddenly broke into tears as my life flashed before my eyes.

BOOM!

All of a sudden, I felt something huge simply explode out of my back.  Nick jumped out of surprise.  Then his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.

"You've got _wings_, dude!"

"What!?"

"Wings, man!"

"Seriously!?"

"Use 'em, stupid!  Do you wanna get _killed_?"

I looked backwards and was quite astounded to see big, white, feathery wings trailing from my back.  I got _really_ excited.  Gripping my hands, Nick hung below me, and I stretched out my wings and caught the air.  The strain from the wind was absolutely _tremendous_ as I pulled up to a level flight, almost so much that it hurt.

But, in less than a second, all the fear was gone, and I was soaring.  It was ecstasy, almost, so much that I nearly dropped Nick.  We swooped down, descending in a downward spiral, until we finally reached the alley where the others were waiting.

Nick dropped down before me, landed on top of Dugan, and immediately embraced the ground.  Exhausted, as soon as I touched the asphalt, I collapsed, and my new wings folded like a tent over me.

"Hillareeeee!"  Justin bounded over and did that Tigger thing from Winnie the Pooh.  He leaped, hit, and made us both tumble a few feet until I was on my back and he was sitting on me, practically singing praises to the heavens.  "I thought you were gonna die back there – "

At that moment, Will came out of nowhere, tackling Justin rather violently and promptly pinning him on the ground some distance away.  "You _idiot_!  Don't you realize that she might be _hurt_?"

"Unh..."  I rolled on my side.  "God, I'm tired..."

Nick scrambled over on his hands and knees.  Then he abruptly smashed his face into the pavement.  "I, Roscoe, humbly request that you accept my deepest gratitude for saving my ass..."

Chapter Four

"So, how're we gonna get back up there?" Dugan asked.  "We obviously can't go up in the pacs now, because Robotnik's got defensive lasers."

I rubbed my head and sat up.  "Well...uh..."  I turned to see Will still chewing Justin out for tackling me.  What a guy.

"Well?"  Dugan kicked Nick lightly.  Startled, the fox glanced up, and then sat cross-legged on the asphalt.

"I don't know..." I said.  "I still feel disoriented..."

"Don't push yourself," said Dugan.  "You didn't hit your head up there, did you?"

"Nah..."

Dugan helped me to a standing position.  My wings were a mess from the tumble.  Twisting around, I tried to straighten them out.  It would be a burden to walk around with 'em, and I kind of wished they would just retract back in or something –

_Shzip!_  Right as that thought crossed my mind, my wings sort of just withdrew into my back and disappeared.  Amazing.

Everyone stared at me.  I froze.  "What?"

"They're gone," stated Justin, still pinned on his back.

"Oh, really?" Will said.  "I didn't notice."  He got up off of Justin and gave him a bored sarcastic stare.

"Where'd the wings come from in the first place?" asked Nick.

"I'd say from programming," answered Dugan, "but we never programmed wings in to Shoe's file.  It might seem weird to y'all, but I think her information evolved."

"It's not polite to refer to anyone present in third person," I said automatically.

Justin rolled his eyes.  "Always with the manners," he said.  Nick laughed.

"But computer information doesn't just evolve on its own," said Will.

"Exactly!" said Dugan.

"Yeah, but you're forgetting that we're all actual conscious data files that are capable of learning and changing, not Pentium 1's that can barely process anything," I said.  "And we're not flesh and blood, either.  Nothing is underneath except digital information."

"Like Digimon," said Dugan.  I nodded.

"Hang on."  Justin stood up.  "So I'm a computer, right?"

"A _conscious_ computer," I corrected.

"Interesting."  Will leaned against a dumpster.  "This is a huge technological breakthrough, and yet you've never told anyone?"

"Would _you_?" asked Dugan.  Will didn't answer.

All of a sudden, without warning, a huge white laser shot down from the sky and made the entire alley erupt.

I was blasted backwards and smashed into the brick wall.  Smoke and dust was everywhere, filling the air so much that it was making me choke and cough.  Every single one of the dumpsters was on fire.

Justin triumphantly popped up from within a pile of rubble.  "Hah!  I _told_ you we were indestructible!"

I sighed and stood up.  No one was hurt, thankfully, even though we were all scattered like rag dolls around the disastrous alley.  Then I was blown back down again from the shockwave of a big hovercraft/jet slamming down in the middle of the alley.  Quite surprising.

I stood up and coughed, fanning in front of my face to clear the dust and smoke.  The big jet was completely black, and roughly shaped like an elongated, rounded triangle.  The one-way glass cockpit was on top, and the ends on either side of the craft were raked forward in ridiculously long points, like jousting poles or something.

The cockpit slid open and Eggman himself stood up.

"Oh my God!"  Dugan jumped up and down and pointed.  "He actually made something _cool_ for once!"

"Eh?"  Eggman raised an eyebrow.  "Yes, well, thanks...Anyway, I demand to know why you all have gathered to thwart my plans once again."

"Dude, lose the dialect," said Justin.  "You're in the real world now."

"This _is_ my natural dialect," said the eggman.

"Well, damn, for a genius, it's awfully cliché," said Nick.  We all giggled like idiots.

"Oh, something I've always wondered..." said Will.  "Where do you get the money to build all your equipment?  Did you ever graduate from college?  How come you've never married?  Are your antisocial tendencies due to your abnormally frequent and total unaccompanied immersion in electronic and digital engineering procedures?"

Total silence.

"And you kiss your _mom_ with that mouth?" Justin finally said.

Chapter Five

Without warning, the two long rods on either side of the jet craft started glowing and humming with blue energy.  Eggman laughed.  "See if you all can escape my latest creation – the Jet Egg!"

"Oh, that is just _blatantly_ lame," said Nick.  "You should call it something snazzy, or just shorten the current name.  How about 'Jegg'?  I like that."

Eggman stroked his moustache.  "I see your point.  All right.  See if you all can escape my latest creation – the Jegg!"  He sat down, closed the cockpit, and rose off the ground.  Old newspapers and other miscellaneous garbage tumbled over the ground in an outward circle, blown by the hot wind from the jet engines on the bottom of the Jegg.

Then the glowing blue rods fired.  Crackling blue laser bolts shot right over our heads and hit the brick wall at the end of the alley, creating a huge charred crater.

"Was that a misfire, or is the eggman just showing off?" Nick asked.

"Alright," I said, rubbing my hands together.  "We'll take off underneath the Jegg and run out onto the street.  If we stay in here, we'll be exterminated.  Robotnik won't kill innocent people, so if we run out into the city, everything should be fine."

"Fine!?" Dugan shouted.  "You think getting shot at is just fine and dandy!?  Plus, everyone's gonna see us!"

"Exactly!  If we keep Robotnik chasing us, the police will eventually shoot him down, and then we can swoop in and send him back to the Sonic universe.  Easy."

"Do you really think that law enforcement can take that thing down?" asked Will.

"Oh, they'll probably send the Army in or something.  Dugan and I have made 'em do it before," I said.

"Y'all, that thing's gonna shoot again!" Justin yelled, wildly pointing to the glowing blue rods.

I took a deep breath.  "GO!!!"

The five of us shot off like bullets right underneath the Jegg and out onto the street.  The traffic was insane.  There was hardly any room to run between the cars.  Thinking quickly, I jumped and started bounding from car top to car top, easily getting away.  The others soon followed my lead, except that Nick couldn't seem to stop denting each car he landed on.  He simply lacked gracefulness.  Hilarious.

The Jegg zoomed out of the alley and put on the speed.  The rods were a bright blue by now, and they looked like they were very ready to be fired.  We ran.

I tripped on the lights atop a police car and went headfirst to the ground, rolling a few feet head-over-heels.  When I finally stopped, I sat up, a little bit dazed.

"ShoegetoutofthewayNOW!"  Someone tackled me and got us both over to the curb.  The police car barreled right over what would have been me.  I put my hand to my forehead in bewilderment.  It was Will who'd saved me.  Needless to say, I was quite happy.  I threw my arms around him, and neither of us said a word.  Then we shot off to go catch up with the others.

The cars were beginning to thin out, so we started alternating between hopping the car tops and running on the ground.  Eggman in his Jegg was trying to get a good aim, but it was nearly impossible, what with the five of us weaving all around in between the cars.  Then Dugan jumped right over a slow taxi.  The Jegg fired, and the twin blue bolts of electricity caught the red hedgehog, suspending him in the air and drawing him back up to the hover jet.  Dugan screamed and thrashed.  He was getting the crap fried out of him.  He was drawn closer and closer to the Jegg, and right when he touched the hull, he simply exploded into fire.  Just exploded.

I screamed.  Justin jumped on top of a car.  "FLAME!!!"

The entire front half of the Jegg was an inferno.  Then, all of a sudden, Dugan shot forward, engulfed in a ball of flames.  He looked just like a Super Saiyan.  Then, the fire disappeared completely, leaving Dugan himself flying like a bullet, surrounded by a wavering blanket of pure heat.

"Flame, man, you can _fly_!" Nick yelled from atop a white limousine.  Dugan shot right overhead.  I suddenly thought of my own wings.  I wondered if they could be summoned again...

BOOM!  The sound was like a giant firework going off.  I continued to run, then stretched my wings and gracefully lifted off, catching the wind and zooming upwards in a shallow slope.  Dugan was ahead, but he noticed me and slowed down until we were side by side.  The two of us blew right over Will, Nick, and Justin.  Surprised, the three of them scrambled to catch up, abandoning the car jumping and taking to the pavement.

I heard the Jegg's rods starting to hum again.  Not daring to look back, the five of us hauled ass.

Dugan was completely silent, but he had a huge crazed grin plastered on his face.  He was enjoying the flight, apparently.  He suddenly held out his arms to either side, conjured up two fireballs, and let them loose.  They flew back, blasting the Jegg's cockpit glass, but to no avail.  Most of Dr. Robotnik's better creations were pretty much everything-proof.  Dugan glanced back and scowled.

I looked down and noticed that the other three guys were pulling ahead somewhat.  I caught Dugan's attention and pointed forward.  He gave a 'thumbs up' and sped up.  I tried to follow, but I was falling behind.  Crap!  I flapped my wings as hard as I could.  Man, I wished I could just use pure energy or heat or whatever to fly effortlessly like Dugan was...

And there I went.  All of a sudden, I didn't have to flap or anything.  I was just using my wings to guide myself while an invisible force shot me forward at a dizzying speed.  Hmm...I took advantage of it and sped up until I was passing the others.

The Jegg fired.  The blue bolts of electricity slammed into the ground over and over again, barely missing Will, Nick, and Justin.  Nick screamed like a girl again.

"_Why_ is Eggman trying to kill us!?" the black fox yelled.  No one answered.

"Okay, y'all, turn left on the next street!" I yelled over the noise.

"When!?" yelled Justin.

"NOW!!!"

All five of us blew to the left.  And came face-to-face with a skyscraper.  I shot straight up, my underside less than two feet away from the glass windows.  Dugan wasn't far behind me.  I slowed and looked back down.  Justin, Nick, and Will were running straight up the side of the building.  The Jegg was nowhere in sight, but we all kept going until we reached the very top of the skyscraper.

I dragged myself up over the edge and more or less flopped down on the concrete like a dead fish.  Dugan made a perfect landing on his feet.  Will vaulted over the edge, Nick ran clear up into the air, and Justin clambered over as if the dudes from the Matrix were after him.  All five of us ended up lying on the ground, exhausted.

"That was the biggest thrill...of my entire life," panted Nick.

Will stretched out on his back.  "Splendid..."

I sat up.  "Be on your guard, though, 'cause Eggman might show up again."

"Huh," said Dugan.  "He _will_."

"You still haven't said why Eggman's trying to kill us," said Nick.

"Oh, yeah, that..."  I scratched my head and retracted my wings.  I started to reply, but then Will cut me off.

"I think we have stumbled upon something!"  Will sat straight up.  "We're all made of data, correct?  And Shoe's data evolved on its own with the wing thing, right?  And now Dugan's information changes, also?  There's a pattern going on, here.  Why hasn't anyone brought this up sooner?"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, we've got an old fart that passes for a genius trying to kill us," said Nick.  He casually blew his hair out of his face.

"Hey!  Check this out!"  Dugan picked up a small steel pipe.  He concentrated and started to radiate with heat.  The pipe turned red hot, then white, and finally melted in his hands, dripping down between his fingers to singe the concrete.

Justin lazily gave a 'thumbs up'.  "Boy, I can't wait until this error thing happens to me," he said.

"Error?  Who said it was an error?" asked Dugan.

"It sounds cool," said Justin.  "Error mode.  If this keeps happening, we'll call it error mode."

"I think it can be modified slightly," I said.  "Back down there when we were all speeding up?  I was falling behind, but I just concentrated, and all of a sudden, I didn't have to flap my wings anymore.  I was just flying like a superhero or something.  Yeah, I know it's corny, but that's the only way I can think to describe it."

"Yeah, I think she's right," said Dugan, referring to my previous statement.  "I can generate heat, but if I push myself, I can create fire.  I think it's really cool – Gah!"

We were all incredibly surprised.  All of a sudden, this weird loud digital ripping noise came out of nowhere, and the Jegg reappeared out of thin air.  The cockpit slid open and Eggman stood up to greet us.

"What are you all doing up here?" he demanded.

"We're discussing the many varieties of beef jerky," said Nick, good-naturedly.

"What?!"  Dugan held his arms out in a 'what the hell was that' gesture.  "That had absolutely _nothing_ to do with absolutely _nothing_!"

"That's the _point_!  You just ruined it!  Many thanks!"  Nick bowed.

Eggman put his hand to his forehead.  "I don't know why I even bother with you all...But you must be disposed of!"  He held out his own version of the PDNA and hit a button.  Almost instantly, about a hundred or so creepy, crawly, black..._things_ started emerging from the concrete floor.  Wait.  I knew what those were.

Will pointed.  "Hey, those are – "

"They're Shadow Heartless!" I yelled.

"From Kingdom Hearts!"  Nick slapped his hands to his cheeks like that kid from the Home Alone movies.  "Oh mah Gaaad!"

We attacked.  Actually, only Will, Nick, and I attacked.  Justin and Dugan were still standing there like idiots, not knowing what the hell those black insect things were.


End file.
